Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1887-12-31
NO. 16.
EARLY CALENDARS.
The Clog Ainlanac-The First Written
and Printed Almanacs.


and Printed Almanacs.
Not every reader of these lines knows
why the calendar is SO called, nor the
reason for naming one of the most indis
pensable of modern handbooks the alma
nae.
1t was customary in old Rome to pro-
claim the first of each month, that the
people kaight know the dates for the con-
stantly recurring religious festivals A
notice of the beginning of each new
month was also affixed in public place,
and the LIST of the month took the
name Kalendae or Kalends, from the
Greek verb meaning TO call, while to the
posted notice was applied the name Faste
Calendares. Later book of accounts re-
ferring to days was called Calendarium, a
calendar, and from this we have derived
our word, applied nowadays not only to
condensed almanac, or exposition of time
divisions generally, but of late years to
those dainty publications loved so well
by young women wherein each day of the
year is provided with passage from some
favorite author. An old stone calendar
found at Pompeii is in the form of square
block, upon each of the four sides of
which are registered three months. in per-
pendicular columns, the proper sign of
the Zodiac heading each. Agricultural
and religious information is given as well
as astronomical.
The name almanac was derived from
the Saxons, who according to q quaint
chronicler named Verstegen, fused to en-
grave upon certaine squared sticks, about
q foot in length, or shorter, or longer, rs
they pleased, the courses of the incomes of
the whole yere, whereby they could al
wales certainly tell when the new incomes,
full incomes and changes should happen,
as also their festival daies, and such a
carved stick they called al-mon-aught,
that is to say, al-mon-heed, TO wit, the
regard or observation of all the INCOMES"
The Clog almanac described by DR.. Robert
Plot and found by him in the northern
countries of Europe in 1886 was probably
modification of the al-mon-aught. 1t
was a square stick of box or other hard
wood, on which the days and months were
designated by variously shaped notches.
Properly, it was a perpetual almanac, de-
signed to show the Sundays and other
fixed holidays of the year only.
The earliest written almanacs were
those of Solomon Jarchus, published in
the Twelfth century. Pebrus de Dacia
published an almanac in the year 1900
and thereafter they became more common
with every year Astrology was always
exhaustively treated of in these early al
MANAGES, and the following is an extract
from an almanac for 1886:
ExPosYcroS OF TIE sYSEs
Aquarius es a syne In the whilk the son es
in Jany, and in that moneth are 7plyos dayes,
the /, q 4, 8, 6, 10 49, and il thoner is heard in
that moneth it betokens CRETE wynde, mykel
fruite, and batel Aquarius is hote, moyste, san.
as1d hot ~ do to, hr-rr
tells, or hous or to wed.
The first almanac printed in Europewas
probably the Kalendarium Novum, by
Regiomontanus, calculated for 1475, 1904
and 1913. 1t was published in Buda,
Hungary. Richard Pynson, in 1897,
printed the first English almanac, trans
lating it from the French, and calling it
The Sheapheard's Kalendar.
Almanacs were largely prophetic in
those days, and most readers of this will
remember the patent medicine almanacs
OF their younger days, in which would oc-
sur in italic type, stretching half
way down the page and covering
fully fortnight's time, such predictions
as these: "About this time we
may expect hail, snow or rain, accom-
panied by variable Winds" or 'tLook out
for clear calm weather, with rising tenn
perature and possibly violent thunder
storms"
In On almanac published in 1864, called
Poor Robin, occurs this remarkable
humorous representation for January:
''There will be much frost and cold
weather in Greenland" Possibly Ben
Franklin got suggestion for the title Of
his famous Poor Richards Almanac"
from Poor Robin.